Santa Cruz residents respond to officer-involved shooting

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The Santa Cruz City Council chambers are filled as citizens line up to address the council during public comments Tuesday in the wake of the police shooting of Sean Arlt on Oct. 16. (Shmuel Thaler — Santa Cruz Sentinel)

SANTA CRUZ – Seizing the Santa Cruz City Council meeting’s public forum, more than 30 community members weighed in Tuesday on the Oct. 16 shooting death of Sean Arlt.

“Calling 911 is the most difficult decision for a family to make, and now trust is deeply shaken,” said Carol Williamson, president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Santa Cruz County.

Sean Arlt, 32, seen here with his son, was shot and killed Oct. 16 by a Santa Cruz police officer. (Family of Sean Arlt — Contributed)

Williamson, saying that Arlt suffered from mental illness, as sources close to Arlt’s family have confirmed, said the death of this “beautiful young man” called for a closer look at whether or not local law enforcement’s response to psychiatric crisis is working, whether or not the mental health care system is working and how the entire county should investigate its use-of-force cases.

A Santa Cruz police officer shot and killed Artl, 32, after officers were called to a disturbance on the Westside. Officers attempted to subdue him with a Taser before he was shot while carrying a metal rake, officials say. Four officers on the scene during the shooting were put on administrative leave as the department conducts an internal investigation on compliance with department policies.

On a parallel track, the Santa Cruz District Attorney’s Office is investigating the shooting separately to determine if there were any criminal liability in the case.

Though the officer-involved shooting was not a scheduled agenda item, Mayor Cynthia Mathews opened the meeting by addressing community concerns and describing Arlt’s death as “wrenching” for his family, the community and the police department.

“Ultimately, as we learn more about the circumstances surrounding this very sad incident, I hope that the broader community can learn and avoid future tragedy,” Mathews said, urging members of the public to have patience as the Santa Cruz District Attorney’s Office investigates.

Police Chief Kevin Vogel, who was out of the country on vacation from Oct. 3 until Monday, shared his condolences on Arlt’s death, saying typically the agency involved in such a shooting does not publicly comment on a case once it is handed over for investigation.

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Vogel said, however, that the identities of the four officers involved in the shooting will not be made publicly available by the police department or by the District Attorney’s Office until the investigations are complete. Release of officers’ video and audio footage of the confrontation will be left in the hands of the District Attorney’s Office, he said.

Among the speakers with council candidate and former Mayor Chris Krohn, who said he believed the council was doing a disservice by not holding a community meeting on the issue at the larger Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. Fellow candidate Nate Kennedy suggested arming low-ranking officers with rubber bullets. Former council candidate Steve Pleich, who is also vice chairman of the local ACLU and president of the Mental Health Client Action Network of Santa Cruz’s board of directors, asked that Arlt’s death become a “watershed moment in this community” in terms of improved access to local mental health resources.

Speaker Sharon de Jong described Arlt’s death as “heartbreaking,” and thanked Vogel for addressing the community.

“I understand people wanting transparency right this moment, but that might be an unrealistic expectation,” de Jong said.

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“I always thought he was a good man,” Jannatul Ferdous, the suspect’s wife, said Wednesday, speaking through the crack of the front door of her home in Dhaka, “and I still consider him a good man. I never thought he could be involved in an incident like this.”